Masonry Magazine December 2002 Page. 17
Doherty: In ten years, it will be, obviously, still drywall on interior and exterior installation systems, just because of the cost factor.
Masonry: What do you feel are the most critical issues you'll face with future government regulations?
Doherty: I really think that OSHA is going to be our biggest headache. I can't say that everything they are doing is bad - I think a lot of what they are doing is very good. Unfortunately, they don't, in a lot of instances, come up with a lot of guidelines that are very definitive, and they leave things to inspectors, I don't want to say whims, but it's almost that. Things are not black and white; there are too many gray areas. And this has also created a lot of problems for us.
There are a lot of owner-controlled insurance programs going on in the industry right now, where the owners are picking up the workman's comp and general liability coverage. The insurance companies that are monitoring these for them are putting out a lot of requirements for projects, in the interest of keeping insurance costs down, but unfortunately they're adding to the cost of the work taking place - it's almost a false economy. I don't think they see that yet. They are very concerned about making money and saving money in the insurance end of it, and I don't think they realize they're losing money on the actual construction end of it.
Masonry: Which group do you feel has the bigger impact on masonry's future: architects, engineers or general contractors?
Doherty: I feel that architects are the key. I think that if they're sold on our products and they can sell the owners, then our products will be in the jobs. I think this would be a tremendous impact. They also impact us greatly at the construction end. Today, we get more sets of drawings that are design development, not for construction. Too many things are left up to people's imagination about how things are supposed to go together, because the drawings are not in as great of shape as they need to be. This leaves too much to people's imaginations, which unfortunately has cost impacts and it creates conflicts. How they do their jobs, as far as drawings, and how they are sold on our products are critical to our industry.
Masonry: What do you like most about being a member of MCAA?
Doherty: The biggest thing about it is they offer a nationwide effort toward achieving our industry goals. They pose as a united front and a focal point for people looking at our industry. MCAA also takes the lead in a lot of things, like code requirements and safety issues nationwide, and these are things that the individual contractors cannot do on their own. That focus that MCAA has had and, I'm sure, will continue to have is probably the biggest thing to me. What they do for the industry as a whole, that the individuals cannot do.
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